"Sweat," a short story by Zora Neale Hurston, is a female empowerment text about a woman overcoming her abusive husband. Written in the 1920s, the story is set in central Florida, near Orlando. "Sweat" features Delia and her husband, Sykes, with their marital strife as the plot for the not-so-happy-ending fairy tale. As in many of Hurston's works, symbolism is key to understanding the story.

Clothing

The clothing in "Sweat" is symbolic in many ways. The fact that Delia is a washerwoman represents women's history of difficult, back-breaking labor. This notion of women and labor is especially true regarding African-American women and domestic labor in the American South. Sykes, Delia's husband, tramples on the clothing, showing his contempt for her job and for her, even though her clothing pays for their home. This symbolizes his disregard for her and their life together.

Snakes

The snake, long a symbol of evil and malevolence, is used throughout the story. Delia is deathly afraid of snakes, a fact that Sykes uses to his advantage. At the beginning of the story, he tricks her with a whip to scare her and to show her once again that he has dominance over her. A bit later, Sykes actually catches a large rattlesnake. Though Delia begs him to kill it, he leaves it in the house with her, where it begins to rattle continually as it grows hungrier, a signal of trouble coming.

The Chinaberry Tree

Flowers and fruits and plants in general are a common symbol in Hurston's short stories and novels, nearly always symbolizing womanhood and fertility. Chinaberry trees are not native to Florida; they are an invasive species that was brought to Florida to be planted as an ornamental tree. They provide lovely shade, but their fruit is poisonous. Delia sits and waits under the chinaberry tree in the yard of her house for Sykes to die after he is bitten by the rattlesnake he brought into the house. The tree, symbolizing womanhood and fertility, has triumphed in the end.

White and Black

An interplay of white and black -- symbolizing clean and dirty, darkness and light, or even good and bad -- interplays throughout the short story. Delia is separating white clothes from darker clothes when Sykes purposely scatters them, trampling dirt on the whitest pile of clothing. He tells her not to bring white people's clothing into the house. Delia likes everything to be clean and orderly, but she paid for her house with her sweat and her blood. She finds the snake in a basket at night after she strikes a match for illumination, but before she is struck. Goodness and evil interplay in Hurston's story, but in the end, goodness triumphs, and Delia is able to escape her husband.

About the Author

Lori Garrett-Hatfield has a B.J. in Journalism from the University of Missouri. She has a Ph.D. in Adult Education from the University of Georgia. She has been working in the Education field since 1994, and has taught every grade level in the K-12 system, specializing in English education, and English as a Second Language education.